Carter Hart an illustration of how little leeway Flyers have left

Carter Hart made 27 saves on 31 shots in his first game back after missing three weeks with an ankle injury.(Photo: Drew Hallowell, Getty Images)

PHILADELPHIA — At some point, Carter Hart had to be reintroduced to the NHL after missing three weeks with an ankle injury. The reigning champion Washington Capitals were certainly a tall task.

Monday he served as Brian Elliott’s backup against the Ottawa Senators, a team that’s at the bottom of the NHL standings and averages fewer than three goals per game. Interim coach Scott Gordon opted not to give the rookie that game because Elliott was on a roll and he figured that was the best chance to win the game, which the Flyers did, and that he’d save Hart for the back-to-back Thursday against the Capitals and Friday against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

There was some understandable rust as the rookie allowed four goals in the first two periods of a 5-2 loss. With the Flyers essentially having no room for error in their remaining games, it took Hart a little while to find his footing against the first team in the division.

“After the first 20, 25 minutes I started to feel a little better in net. I started to feel like myself and seeing the puck,” Hart said after the game. “Little better off the release, controlling my rebounds better.

“At the end of the day I just have to make a couple more saves. We came out really hard in the second half of the game, I thought, and really put some pressure on them. (Washington’s Braden) Holtby made a couple good saves, but at the end of the day I have to make a couple more saves to give our team a better chance.”

His first game in three weeks was a tough one because of the strength of the opponent, how quickly they move the puck and the fact that when the Flyers had a defensive mistake, the Capitals made sure they took advantage.

There’s not much defensemen can do to try and help out a goalie aside from not getting in shooting lanes to allow better the goalie to see the puck. With how fast players like Alexander Ovechkin release the puck, good luck doing that. In fact, Washington found passing lanes the Flyers didn’t expect and Hart had to be alert.

“I mean, he plays goalie, we don’t have too many adjustments,” Shayne Gostisbehere said. “We just want him to stop the puck. I think he did pretty good. We left him out to dry on a couple goals. It’s not on him, for sure. It’s on us.​”

Brett Connolly had a pair of goals and an assist, his third career three-point game. His linemate, Lars Eller, had another goal when he put home his own rebound after Travis Sanheim failed to clear the puck and Tom Wilson scored when he was left alone in the slot and Hart was anticipating a play at the side of his net.

By no means was Hart the biggest reason for the loss, but his brush-off-the-rust game eat into what little space the Flyers have to miss out on points.

“I don’t think there was anything he could have done on the first two goals, maybe a little bit deep on the third one,” Gordon said. “The fourth one, I couldn’t find any fault. We just had a lost coverage that made it a little bit easier than it should have been.”

Gordon said recently that Hart would play a role as the Flyers finish out the season with three goalies, including pending free agent Cam Talbot, whom the Flyers traded for a month ago. Now they need him to be as stellar as he was in January when he had a .931 save percentage and won rookie of the month honors.

“He looked pretty sharp after getting settled in,” Scott Laughton said. “Not too many rebounds coming off of him. I thought he did a good job for us, gave us a chance, but we made a couple too many mistakes that ended up in the back of our net.”